E7ZI 

C22 



Hon. nnnK 4. C^Ao^n 



E 721 

Ccpy I 



CTJB_iA^_ 



I believe that just one strong, bi-ave word from the people of the "United States 
will at once put a stop to Cuban atrocities; and if tliat brave word shall bespoken 
in time it will absolutely prevent the possibility of war between this country 
and Spain. 



SPEECH 

/ 
OF 

Hon. FRAI^K J. CAI^NOF, 

OF UTAH, 

r"\ .> "^ IN THE 

o 

SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES, 

FEBRUARY 9. 1898. 



AV ASHIlSr&'r OKT. 

1898. 






-i^ 



^ O tL^ 



08046 



L 



^ 






SPEECH 



OF 



HON. rUANK J. CANNON. 



AFFAIRS IN CUBA. 



Mr. CANNON. Mr. President, as I entered the Senate Cham- 
ber this morning I obtained a copy of this morning's New York 
Herald, which contains an article telegraphed from Washington 
by the bureau of the Herald here from which I will read some 
words as an introduction to the remarks which I shall make on 
the pending resolution. 

Under headlines which state that the President is disjileased at 
the exhibition of jingoism in the Senate this expression occurs: 

It will be well understood here and in official circles abroad that nothing 
more harmless than talk will result. The President very mut'h deplores this 
agitation at the present time. It is regarded as unfortunate that just when 
negotiations for the projio.sed new commercial treaty with Spain are getting 
under way members of the Senate should pursue a course which might seri- 
ously embarrass the Administration in the pending negotiations. 

The New York Herald is usually very accurate in its news and 
in its observations upon the sentiments of the administration of 
affairs in this country, and I take it that I am not going too far 
when I accept this statement as being the view of the Adminis- 
tration at the present time. 

Mr. President, at the threshold of the new movement for a recog- 
nition of Cuba, I desire to say that it is not my purpose, and so far 
as I know it is not the purpose of any Senator who shall address 
the Senate or who shall speak to the country on this question, to 
disturb in any way the peace and welfare of the people of the 
United States or to interpose any remark in criticism which can 
in any manner deflect from its progress toward success any policy 
which the President of the United States has in mind at this time 
for the honorable settlement of the Cuban question and the estab- 
lishment of the dignity of this Republic. 

Mr. President, there is another phase, however, to this question 
as raised by a great and powerful newspaper. By what authority 
does any public journalist declare that nothing more harmful 
than talk will result from the agitation of the Cuban question in 
the Congress of the United States? What access has the New 
York Herald, or any other paper, to the purposes of this Admin- 
istration which justifies the declaration that no substantial result 
can follow from a movement in Congress to recognize the Cuban 
patriots? 

It would appear that some concerted plan has been determined 
upon to forestall and prevent any action by the Senate, as all pos- 
£190 3 



sible action has been forestalled and prevented in the House of 
Represenlatives. to the end that the will of the people maybe 
undone, and to the end that some policy, not yet revealed to the 
people of the United States and not approved by them, may be 
carrif d out. 

In the same article there are observations upon a distinguished 
member of the Senate, which I do not choose to read. I do not 
know to what extent the author of the artxle may have had con- 
ference with or the indorsement of that Senator; but, Mr. Presi- 
dent, something more harmful tlian talk will result to the anti- 
Cuban purpose of the men in Congress and outside of Congress in 
high official places in this country. The purpose can not ''be car- 
ried out. 

We have been told by intimations, repeated in this body and in 
another hall of legislation and through the p^ublic prints, that a 
policy was to be inaugurated— a policy so courageous in character 
and so startling in effects before the world as to put to shame 
those who have questioned the patriotism of the Administration 
and its intention to carry out the platform upon which the Presi- 
dent was elected. 

And we have waited in vain for the revealment until now, when 
war is ended in Cuba, and when the brutal heroism of battle has 
given place to a controversy of hunger. Spain no longer has the 
courage or the credit to maintain offensive operations in the field. 
She IS only holding to the appearance of a struggle in Cuba in 
order to satisfy the creditors who have advanced the millions by 
which she has sought to keep that people in subjection. Spain 
has been bankrupt in money for many years. She is bankrupt 
now in credit. Her greatest statesman is gone; her people no 
longer have the ability to furnish armies for the contest. Her 
policy is not that of warfare, but it is to subdue by bribery, by 
corraption, by starvation, a people which Spain and her cohorts 
can not conquer in the field. 

If there be any policy on the part of the United States, it is one 
of afiiliation with this movement, by which Spain shaU be enabled 
to saddle upon Cuba the vast mass of debt incurred in the vain 
endeavor to conquer that island. More than four hundred millions 
of bonds are held by Spanish creditors, the b.ilk of which were 
issued to obtain funds with which to carry on the struggle in Cuba. 
In 1868 the Cuban debt was only $25,000,000. At the opening of 
the recent revolution it had swelled to nearly $200,000,000; and as 
Spain charges to Cuban account all the expenditures which are 
made m the prosecution of the warfare, it has now become nearly 
five hundred millions, not all of which, however, is represented 
by bonds. 

Mr. President, I charge now that the purpose of the Adminis- 
tration in delaying action is in consonance with, if not in direct 
copartnership with, the will of the Spanish bondholders, who are 
determined that before Cuba shall be allowed her freedom in the 
world, and before there shall be recognition of her independence 
by Spam, there shall be security upon that blood-stained island for 
the major part of the debt which has been incurred by Spain. 

There are not wanting evidences of this. There appeared in 
an American newspaper a few days since— a paper which can not 
be charged with c:;uban sympathies, a paper which has access to 
the purposes of the Administration now in power— an article 
which substantiates to the letter the statement which I have made. 

311(0 



In the Tribune, of Chicago, under a Washington date line of Feb- 
ruary 8, this statement is made: 

Secret negotiations are nowactnally in progress between tbo State Depart- 
ment and the insurgents in Cuba looking to a stoppage of the war on some 
financial basis, to be agreed iipon hereafter. President McKinley has not 
recognized the insurgents as belligerents, and he can not therefore treat 
■with them openly as he would do with a diplomatic representative of an inde- 
pendent nation. 

Direct communication has been had between the insurgents' government 
and the Administration here. The insurgents expressed perfect willingness 
to assume a reasonable share of the Spanish bonds issued against Cuban rev- 
enues. The proposition has been considered with some favor, and the Pre.si- 
deut and his Cabinet have discussed several plans for guaranteeing the Cuban 
debt on the sole basis of independence. 

At a further point in the article the statement is made that— 

The United States will be in a position to offer Spain a heavy financial 
bonus for giving up the island. 

Mr. President, Cuba has bought her liberty with blood. The 
hundreds of thousands of people who have perished there in this 
last struggle for liberty have offered up their lives in payment of 
the purchase price; and for the United States now to join with 
Spain or to force the patriots to consent to any purchase of th© 
independence of Cuba by the payment of money is like robbing 
the dead. The United States can not afford to maintain a policy 
by which the insurgents— as a last resort, to protect the wives and 
children of the island, to protect the men and the property— must 
consent to give gold to buy that which is already theirs. 

A sufficient apology for bringing this subject before the Senate 
and before the country again at this time is found in a letter writ- 
ten by Gen. Maximo Gomez to a friend in this country under 
recent date. I shall read it here for the purpose of showing to 
the Senate the spirit which animates that great leader in the field 
and which actuates the Cubans, that, if possible, his view may 
find some echo here in the recollections which we have of the 
mighty deeds of our ancestors. He says: 

My Dear AND Respected Friexd: I wrote you before Mendez"s depart- 
ure. He took with him letters in which I related to you everything that had 
happened of importance. I do so now, because it is proper that you should 
know, and by men such as I, that would not stain their name with falsehood, 
that General Blanco, knowingly, or deceived by his subordinates, is carrying 
out a more infamous policy than General Weyler. Ths latter killed and pil- 
laged by daylight, and his orders and decrees were well known, and in his 
case it could' be said, "forewarned is forearmed." But General Blanco, not- 
withstanding his deconcentration, persecutes some families while he leaves 
others alone: destroys the plantings of those who had remained on their 
ranches, while he proposes to establish zones of cultivation around towns and 
forts where nothing but thistles can be raised. 

This agriculture has no direction or system, no definite plan, and no means 
to carry it into effect. It is an illusory and almost a cruel reconstruction. 
It is a system by which a people who are willing to be saved are condemned to 
a fruitless and barren labor. I do not kno vr whether this slavery is not worse 
than the slavery of old of the colored people. _ , . ^ « 

The men who are found getting cattle tor their families are deprived of 
the cattle and killed. Anvone can imagine how many such cases occur, the 
country people confiding in the flag of peace so treacherously waved by Gen- 
eral Blanco. He protects and takes advantage of the traitors and assassins, 
as he is presently doing with the assassin and traitor Antonio M. Guzman. 
If Angiolillo had escaped after his attempt against Sefior Canovasand sought 
refuge in our ranks, hoping to save himself, he would have been sadly mis- 
taken, because justice would have been meted out to him here as it was done 

We can not associate with criminals, for that would be to stain the flag of 
liberty and order which we have waved in our glorious field. The Spaniards, 
319D 



on the other hand, laying aside all considerations of honor and dignity, profit 
by everything against the Cubans. The best and most intimate friend of 
(ienerals Pando and Salcedo is to-day Antonio M. Guzman. But there is 
more. The Spaniards with the greatest cynicism accuse us of cruelties find 
in&ults to our families, as they have just said, referring to our ca])ture of the 
town of Guisa. Let the Cuban lieware who would attack a woman, a child, 
or an old man! To punish him the authority of a general is not needed, be- 
cause we would all rise against such criminal, and at once public opinion and 
the law would fall on him. 

The families within our camps as well as outside we consider as flesh of 
our flesh, bone of our liones. They are the special object of our care, and as 
to myself, I can say that in every Cuban woman I see Bernarda Toro (my 
wife) and Clemencia Gomez (my daughter). But it is not thus with the 
Spaniards. They have sworn war and extermination to everthing that 
breathes in this laud, and Blanco, the same as Weyler, although by different 
systems, goes to the same end. Blanco comes to deceive and corrupt. He 
puts his triumph not in the force of arms, which have been useless, but in the 
force of deceit, of infamy, and of bribery. The Spaniards could not kill us 
in a fair struggle in the field of battle. They now olfer great rewards to 
those assassins who, masked as friends, will come to our midst to suppress, by 
whatever means, those whom they call leaders! 

It is neces.sary that you should make the civilized world acquainted with 
Buch infamies. 

The protest written by those exiles against the pretended autonomy has 
pleased us very much. And although there is not here one single soldier who 
thinks of svich ridiculous proposition, our enthusiasm has been increased 
when we have read of the firmness of our brothers across the seas in also up- 
holding the principles for which so much blood is being daily shed. The win- 
ter campaign has already commenced, with advantage for our arms, and, as 
I have already informed you, without any optimism, we have the war well 
in hand throughout the island, and it will be materially impossible for Spain 
to pacify the island even should she send against us :iU0,()()O men more. Less 
will they be able to do it when they only count with the sickly and tired 
remains of the army which Weyler has left, together with the debts as an 
inheritance for Blanco. 

You and your companions can work with calmness without any precipita- 
tion, so that our directed affairs will turn out properly; as to those who are 
here, you will notice that we continue to fight without weakening. Do not 
worry if you hear of surrenders; they are of those who do not have courage, 
virtue, or prestige, and they do not subtract strength from the revolution; 
they are so many less mouths to feed. 

Your friend, MAXIMO GOMEZ. 

Mr. President, this letter, a personal one, directed from the 
great general to his confidante, is a practical substantiation of 
the statement that war is ended there. Its tenor is a sufficient 
justification for us at this time and in this way to demand a pause 
in the only possible policy which is being maintained by the Ad- 
ministration, which would be to force the Cubans to buy their 
liberties anew from the Spaniard, who does not own them. 

In the rush and hiirry of events, bearing in mind that sixty-one 
resolutions on the Cuban question have been presented before the 
American people in Congress in the past two years, we are likely 
to lose sight of the one significant fact, which has existed from 
the beginning and which now exists, that the President of the 
United States can by a pen stroke stop the barbarities in Cuba, 
free the people there, and relieve the island from the burden 
which it sustains. It is almost earthly omnipotence which he 
possesses. A declaration of belligerency at any time since the 
war began would have brought it to a speedy conclusion, and 
would now absolutely terminate the attempt of Spain to hold 
possession of Cuba. 

Gentlemen who oppose the recognition of belligerency have 
been fond of maintaining here and elsewhere before the country 
that the Cubans would be no better off after the granting of such 
recognition than now. It is significant that every friend of Spain 
in this country has protested against the granting of belligerency, 

31'J0 



and that every friend of Cuba and every sympathizer with that 
devoted island has demanded such recognition, under the state- 
ment and tlie firm belief that with it and with the equal rights 
which it would give to Cubans in this country and in our waters 
the island would soon be free. 

Mr. President, if the Chief Executive of this nation when ho 
came into power could have dreamed of strength and authority 
greater than that which any man had ever enjoyed in our history, 
he could not have conceived in his most ardent iimigination greater 
opportunity than that which now exists in him to set a people 
free. One word will do it. Tlie bare signature of his name to a 
declaration of belligerency will do it. 

What hand is it that stays William McKinley from signing his 
name? What whisper is it that says to him, " Wait? " There has 
never been the suggestion of a movement in behalf of Cuba in two 
years but that some one has said, '"Wait just a little longer and 
the Administration's power will be seen, the great purpose which 
has been cherished by the President will be made known,- and 
Cuba will be freed without danger to the United States." We 
have waited while Americans confined in prison have been starved 
and tortured and assassinated. We have waited, as was said in 
another hall of legislation not long since, until all American prop- 
erty in the island and commerce with the island have been de- 
stroyed. We have waited until war itself has ended and until 
starvation has begun. Our cup of waiting is full. 

Mr. President, on the 13th day of January, nearly a month ago, 
a resolution of inquiry was directed by the Senate to the Presi- 
dent of the United States, asking him to inform the Senate, if not 
incompatible with the pulalic interests, what power of the United 
States was being exerted to protect the lives and property of Amer- 
ican citizens in the Island of Cuba. No response has been received 
to that inquiry; no answer in word or deed has been made by the 
Executive. It is an astonishing thing — almost an unparalleled 
thing — that the Executive should not at least have answered that 
he could not reply in terms without doing something which was 
incompatible with the public interests. The resolution of inquiry 
passed this body unanimously. The Executive has treated it with 
that contempt of silence with which the question is treated under 
the despotism of another branch of the Federal Congress. 

It has been no answer to the American people to send the Maine 
to Cuban waters. For twenty-four hours the people of this coun- 
try were exultant in the thought that the power of the United 
States was to be made manifest, but almost instantly there was a 
revulsion of feeling, because, instead of the Maine's appearing as 
a friend to the Cubaris, it was made to appear that the visit of 
that war vessel was in compliment to Spain, and the flag of the 
United States was dipped to the banner of the tyrant. It is no 
answer to the American people to send the fleet to Key West. All 
those things, if thsy mean anything significant for the Cuban peo- 
jDle, are provocations of war, and the most ardent Cuban sympa- 
thizers in the United States do not wish to see war with Spain for 
the redemption of the island. We have believed from the begin- 
ning that the Cubans were amply competent to win their own 
freedom if they could have the same rights here which were ac- 
corded to their oppressors. It is no answer, Mr. President, that 
there shall be under consideration at the present time a treaty for 
reciprocal commercial relations with Spain. The reciprocity which 
3190 



•8 

the American people want is such as is described in a letter writ- 
ten by Col. Melchor L. de Mola, General Gomez's chief of staff, 
from the field on a recent date. He said: 

On the beautiful morning of the 22d of December there arrived at the gen- 
eral headquarters of the army the consul of the United States at Carthegena, 
Mr. Rafael Madrigal, who came in representation of the consul general of the 
said nation in Havana, Gen. P. H. Lee, to ask of the general in chief of the 
Cuban army the delivery of the jewels and money belonging to the Ameri- 
can citizen Crosby, killed by the Spaniards in the battle which took place in 
Santa Teresa on the 8th of March of this jear. 

As Mr. Madrigal came in an official character and brought the American 
flag waving, he was received with our flag and music, and the honors due to 
the representative of a foreign power which for so many reasons deserves 
our re.spect and affection were done him. The reception of the American 
consul and his suite was solemn and moving. The flags were dipped, and em- 
braces and expressive phrases exchanged by the distinguished visitors and 
our general in chief. 

Mr. Madrigal fulfilled his mission in due form and revealed himself a per- 
fect gentleman and expert diplomat. 

During the days which the distinguished visitors passed in our camp they 
were well taken care of by us. 

This event is important and will have great influence, because it is the 
first time that a legal representative of a foreign power presents himself in 
the Cuban camp to treat with us and to exchange salutations with an author- 
ity of the revolution; it is the first time that the starrv flag of the great 
Republic comes to the field of battle to affectionately join the triumphant 
flag of the solitary star; which implies the tacit acknowledgment of bellig- 
erency; to think of the contrary would be not to do justice to the United 
States. 

That is the reciprocity which the American people want— reci- 
procity of affection and care and support with and for Cuba, not 
with Spain. Commerce with Spain, with or without this recip- 
rocal or other treaty, may well pause for a little time. Our com- 
merce with Cuba free is of more value to the American people, is 
of more profit to our toilers, is a greater enhancement of the in- 
dustries of agriculture and manufacturing in this country, than 
all our trade with Spain, on whatever basis it might be estab- 
lished. 

Mr. President, the resolutions now pending, the one wh^'ch was 
read from the Secretary's desk this morning, and the still more 
striking one presented by the Senator from Illinois [Mr. Mason] , 
and the amendment proposed to the consular and diplomatic ap- 
propriation bill by the Senator from Nebraska [Mr. Allen] , are 
not unnecessary. It is true that this resolution or the one pro- 
posed by the Senator from Illinois will not, if either shall be passed 
by the Senate of the United States, be arecognition of belligerency. 
It is also true that the President of the United States would be 
under no obligation to announce this great right to the Cuban 
patriots, but it is also true that the Senate of the United States 
can discharge its responsibility by renewing its affirmation of 
justice to the struggling patriots. If offense must come, let the 
responsibility be upon those who commit the offense. If the 
House of Representatives shall refuse to adopt any resolution and 
if it shall be in the power of the distinguished Senator who has 
control of the consular and diplomatic bill to prevent a hearing 
or a vote in the Senate on the proposed amendment of the Senator 
fro:n Nebraska, let the responsibility rest where it belongs, but. 
for one, I shall feel that I have not discharged my duty unless I 
endeavor to gain a renewed expression from the Senate of the 
United States of sympathy for Cuba and of intention to force, if 
possi le, some Administrative recognition of the rights which 
they should enjoy in the family of nations. 
:il!»o 



Besides, Mr. President, the bringing forward of resolutions of 
this kind at this time will be a test of the sentiment of the Senate 
of the United States. Less than two years ago there were at most 
btit 5 pro-Spaniards in the Senate; of the entire membership, at 
least 85 Senators asserted their sympathy with Cuba, either by 
voice or vote in this Chamber or by external expression. When 
the resolution for belligerency was brought forward on the 20th 
day of May last for a vote, there were 41 Senators present who 
voted affirmatively. To-day perhaps no resolution could pass this 
body, and yet the people of this country are entitled to have the 
test made to see whether the sentiment which once existed here 
is dead, to see whether the supplications of the people in general, 
the requests of State legislatures, which in many instances have 
petitioned the Senate and the House for action on this question, 
are to be ignored. 

I suppose this resolution may die in the Senate Committee on 
Foreign Relations if the gentlemen who have charge of the im- 
portant subjects which come before that committee shall refnse 
to bring it forward with a recommendation for or against its 
passage, btit the effort made by bringing the question once more 
into the Senate of the United States will not be without avail, 
because the struggle in both Houses of Congress will thereby be 
encouraged. 

Mr. President, I have said that the recognition of Cuban bellig- 
erency would set Cuba free. There has been expended by the 
Cuban patriots since the beginning of this war a sum less than 
$3,000,000. At no one time have they had in their treasury more 
than a quarter of a million, and at the present time they have less 
than $100,000. We affect to carry out neutrality laws which 
should obtain between nations at peace with each other, and yet 
the Cubans in the field get munitions of war from the United 
States. The rifles which the Cubans use with so much effect are 
sent from this country. Every rifle which a Cuban soldier carries 
has cost the Cuban patriots $200 before it is piit in the field. 

Mr. ALLEN. I trust there may be order in the Chamber, so 
that the Senator from Utah will not be disturbed in his remarks. 

Mr. CANNON. I do not object to ordinary disturbance, and I 
am quite content to allow Senators or gentlemen who have access 
to the floor all the privileges which are usually exercised here, but 
I certainlv do object 

Mr. HALE. If the Senator will allow me, I hope the Chair 
will enforce the rule that conversation shall entirely cease in the 
Chamber. It is utterly impossible for those of us who desire to 
listen and who are sitting near the Senator from Utah to hear 
what he says unless order is preserved. 

Mr. CANNON. I thank the Senator from Maine, but I wish to 
conclude the observation I was making. I stated that I do not 
object to ordinary interruption— to conversation or movement in 
the Chamber— but I do object to expressions of denial couched in 
improper language. A remark was made by some one, I think not 
a member of this body, to the effect that the statement which I 
had just uttered concerning the cost of rifles to the Cubans was a 
lie. The statement was distinctly audible to me and perhaps to 
others. I do not kr.ow by what right anyone who may have the 
privilege of the floor assumes to utter any remarks during the 
progress of business here, but I care less for that than I do for 
the spirit which actuated the remark. 
3190 



10 

Mr. President, it is a solemn truth that the Cnbans have to pay 
$200 each for the rifles with which they have secured their liber- 
ties. We have been doubly guilty of cowardice; we have refused 
to recognize the belligerency of the Cuban patriots, so that they 
might enter this country upon equal terms with the tyrant of 
Spain to biiy munitions of war and supplies for their army and 
their suffering x^eople, while at the same time our selfish com- 
merce has made its exaction of extra blood money from the pa- 
triots for every rifle and all the munitions of war which it has 
secretly sold to them. Every express company and every skipper 
of a craft which has engaged to aid filibustering between this 
country and the Island of Cuba has taken a deadly toll, until each 
rifle which has come into the hands of a patriot in the field has cost 
the Cubans $200. 

I stated that $1,000,000 would enable the Cuban patriots to put 
an end to the struggle or the appearance of a struggle. If Cuban 
belligerency were granted by the people of the United States, at 
this hour the Cuban patriots could buy enough munitions of war 
with the small funds at their command to drive the last invader 
from the island. 

Mr. President, we have pursued a policy on this question that 
is little less than infamous. In 1823 we notified the countries of 
Europe that all hands except those of Spain must be kept off 
Cuba. To-day the Christian sentiment throughout the world 
outside of the United States might possibly be aroused in behalf 
of the struggling republic, but under the doctrine which we 
have enunciated no other nation than the United States can in- 
terpose to aid the Cubans without coming into conflict with the 
principle by which we are gl^ided in international affairs. The 
United States therefore stands to administer the Spanish garrote 
to the Cuban patriots. We hold the Cubans whilst Spain out- 
rages and pillages the island. 

Mr. President, I trust that the Committee on Foreign Relations, 
which takes these resolutions into its keeping, will permit us once 
more to vote on this qiiestion at an early day. And in addition 
to the direct issue on the resolutions, I hope that the stibcommit- 
tee which has charge of the consular and diiilomatic appropria- 
tion bill will allow us to have a vote upon the amendment of the 
Senator from Nebraska [Mr. Allen] . If the Senate of the United 
States will at this time attach the amendment of the Senator from 
Nebraska to the appropriation bill, the House of Representatives, 
which is eager to declare on this question, may have the long- 
sought opportunity in despite of the plans to the contrary. I be- 
bieve that just one strong, brave word from the people of the 
United States will at once put a stop to Cuban atrocities, and if 
that brave word shall be spoken in time it will absolutely prevent 
the possibility of war between this country and Spain. 

Mr. HALE. Mr. President, I do not rise now for the purpose 
of debating this resolution at any length, nor any of the questions 
involved in it, for the reason that I agree in what is evidently the 
expectation of the Senator from Utah [Mr. Cannon], that the 
resolution will be sent to the Committee on Foreign Relations, and 
that committee will have ami)le opportunity to consider it and to 
make report upon it. 

The resolution of the Senator from Utah will be followed by 
another resolution upon the same subject submitted yesterday by 
the Senator from Illinois [Mr. Mason], who desires to address the 
319J 



11 

Senate on his own proposition. I have no doubt that that resolu- 
tion will take the same course with this, and will be referred to 
the Committee on Foreign Relations, and therefore I shall not 
upon either resolution go at length into general debate upon ttt? 
Cuban situation. 

Both resolutions, Mr. President, are in the direction of a deter- 
mined purpose to put the Administration into leading strings in 
reference to its policy upon Cuba. They are based upon the as- 
sumption that the country can not afford to wait the processes by 
which the executive department will arrive at one conclusion or 
another upon this stibject, but are intended to drive the Adminis- 
tration into a course which I believe is fraught with danger to the 
countr)', and may involve us at a near day in an armed conflict 
with a now friendly nation. 

Another step in this same programme to coerce the Administra- 
tion is the amendment offered yesterday by the Senator from Ne- 
braska [Mr. Allen], by which it is proposed, in a rider to be 
thrust upon an appropriation bill, to settle the policy of the coun- 
try and of the Administration upon the Cuban question. 

I have great faith first that the Committee on Foreign Relations 
will treat that amendment and the consideration of it wisely, and, 
moreover, that whatever may be the result of its deliberations 
upon it, the amendment offered by the Senator from Nebraska, 
clearly subject as it is to the point of order, will be ruled out under 
our rules and upon the good general reason that we ought not on 
a matter of such vast importance to coerce another branch by piit- 
ting so drastic a proposition as a rider on an appropriation bill. 

But, Mr. President, the Senator from Nebraska, in offering his 
resolution, indicated that he should go further, and that whatever 
might be the result of the deliberations of the Foreign Relations 
Committee, or whatever might be ruled from the Chair upon a 
point of order, he would take an appeal and bring this subject 
before the Senate and put Senators upon record. Therefore, assum- 
ing that when that time comes the matter will really be brought 
in its most strenuous form and in its most objectionable form 
before the Senate, I do not propose to take much time of the Sen- 
ate to-day in debating the subject of our relations with Cuba. 

I shall speak briefly here, and then I shall give way to the Sen- 
ator from Illinois, who is desirous of debating his own resolution. 

The President, in his first message to Congress, a most carefully 
considered document, presented tlie whole situation in Cuba, the 
relations of this Government and this country to it, and the atti- 
tude that he assumed as the head of the Administration, in a most 
clear, cogent, and conclusive fashion. In the message which I 
have before me he discussed the situation at length, page after 
page, none of it surplusage, but all of it throwing light upon the 
subject. He quoted from the great messages of Grant in the years 
past that are a fundamental doctrine upon the subject, and also 
referred sympathizingly, in instances, to the suffering in Cuba and 
to wrongs committed and excesses endured there. 

He summed up his conclusions as follows: 

For these reasons I regard the recognition of the belligerency of the Cuban 
insurgents as now unwise and therefore inadmissible. Should that step here- 
after be deemed wise as a measure of right and duty, the Executive will 
take it. 

He there laid down the chart of the course his Administration 
will pursue — that if at any time in the future the conditions 

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12 

slionld be such as to justify recognition of Cuban belligerency, the 
Executive would act in accordance with such conditions. 

Now, since then the President and his Administration have 
acted time and again. The Senator from Utah has declared that 
many American citizenshavebeen imprisoned, abused, maltreated, 
killed, it may be, in Spanish prisons in Cuba. Since that message 
was written," in the plan which the President had in his mind of 
considering this subject carefully and acting from time to time as 
wisdom might direct, he has taken such a course that to-day not 
one citizen of the United States is found in prison upon the Island 
of Cuba. One of the things that was demanded of this Adminis- 
tration has been most signally answered by the course of the Presi- 
dent. To-day there is not an American citizen in durance in Cuba, 

Moreover, the President, recognizing the sufferings upon the 
island, whoever may be responsible for them, and in that 1 do not 
wholly agree with the Senator from Utah, has not only made an 
appeal to the country for help, for benefactions from the Ameri- 
can people, but has so conducted negotiations with the represent- 
atives of the Spanish Government and with the Spanish ministry 
that the doors of Cuba have been thrown open, and every encour- 
agement has been given by the Spanish ministry for the introdiic- 
tion of the aid which the American people has so generously sent. 

More than that. Mr. President, I will not say by any coercion, I 
will not say by argumentation, but clearly by suggestion of a 
friendly nature made by the Administration, the general in com- 
mand, the person in highest authority in Cuba, against whom most 
objection existed and about whose methods undoubtedly there was 
much of the barbaric, has been removed by the Spanish Govern- 
ment and another and a different man put in his place. 

But much more than that has been done. After negotiation 
and suggestion, and after due waiting and consideration by the 
Spanish "Government, for these things can not be done in a day, 
the new Spanish ministry has proclaimed and offered officially 
and submitted to the people of Cuba a charter of human liberties 
that is broader and wider and deeper and more general and benef- 
icent and .democratic in its scope than that of any colonial de- 
pendency to-day of an Anglo-Saxon people on the face of the 
globe. And yet Senators say that nothing has been done. And 
to-day, when this experiment of autonomy is being tried and 
when it can be seen only in the future whether it is successful 
and whether a peaceful government based upon the principles of 
republicanism and true democracy shall be accepted in Cuba — 
when all this hangs in the balance— Senators introduce warlike 
resolutions here for the purpose of inflaming the situation and 
preventing the peace which is desirable in Cuba. 

Still more has the President done. It was said and urged and 
argued in an impassioned way on this floor that the Administra- 
tion was pusillanimous and that we ought to send ships to Cuba to 
show that if needed we could exercise our authority and our power 
in protecting American interests and the citizens of the United 
States there. In addition to what I have said that the President 
and the Administration have done, ships have been sent, great war 
ships, all manned, bearing the Hag of the United States, saihng 
into the harbors of Cuba, showing that the Republic might be 
represented in Cuba as elsewhere in the world. And yet all this 
does not satisfy Senators. Notwithstanding all the Administra- 
tion has done, notwithstanding the situation is entirely changed 
819) 



13 

from what it was, the Senator from Utah introduces his resolu- 
tion which contemplates not only the recognition of belligerency 
but absolute independence in ninety days thereafter. This means 
war. Mr. President, the object is clear and plain, Whether it 
will or not succeed depends on the good sense of the Senate. This 
ought not to be an inflammatory body. This ought not to be a 
body easily caiTied off its feet. 

I do not agree with the assumption of the Senator from Utah 
that the Aiiierican people are determined upon action here and 
intervention that may result in war. First, I do not believe the 
American people want war. It is too intolerable that to-day, with 
our industries reviving, with the demand everywhere for peace, 
the American people want war. There are no indications that the 
American people agree with the Senator from Utah and the Sen- 
ator from Illinois upon this matter and want speedy action. If 
there was any such sentiment it would have displayed itself in 
better fashion than fighting out the battles of Cuba on the floor of 
the United States Senate. We are less than a hundred miles from 
Cuba; there are one hundred places where thousands of men inter- 
ested and determined to help the insurrection might have landed 
in Cuba and joined the insurgent army; and none have gone there. 

There are to-day 250,000 soldiers of the great war of the rebellion 
upon both sides under the age of 50, and not one of them has gone 
to Cuba. There are said to be a million unemployed men in this 
country, with nothing to do, and not one of them has gone to 
Cuba. ' The Senator himself has no friend or relative who has gone 
there. Nay, more, Mr. President. I stand here and pause for a 
reply, and ask any Senator on this floor to give to me the name of 
one single citizen of the United States, with an English name, who 
is to-day fighting in the ranks of the insurgents. [A pause.] 

I put that as an answer to the assumption of the Senator from 
Utah and all other Senators that this great American people is 
bound that the United States shall interfere at the risk of war. 
Some of the newspapers are for it. Others are for it for one rea- 
son and another, and the battle is being fsDught in the United 
States Senate, on the floor of this Chamber, not in Cuba. There 
never was a war that had in it the elements of an honest and sin- 
cere struggle for liberty against oppression that did not arouso 
not only the sympathy but the active aid of hundreds and thou- 
sands of gallant men, and this insurrection has excited none of 
that feeling in this country. 

Mr. HOAR. Lafayette. 

Mr. HALE. Yes; the Senator from Massachusetts has mstanced 
a case of real sympathy with struggling liberty. I have before 
now thought of the difference between the case of the Cuban 
junta and their representatives, not one of whom has ever set foot 
on the Island of Cuba, living upon the contributions they have 
exacted in this> coimtrv, not one ever crossing the narrow strait 
between the island and this country, and I have contrasted it, as 
the Senator from Massachusetts has, with the course of that gal- 
lant young Frenchman, the Marqiiis Lafayette, who took the sea, 
crowded as it was with British cruisers, his life and liberty in his 
hands, and came to this country, joined in our battles, took our 
risks and hardships. One does, I say to the Senator from Massa- 
chusetts, contrast a case like that with the procedure of the so- 
called Cuban patriots in this country. 

Mr. President, I did not mean to be led into this discussion. I 
3190 



14 

only wanted to put the situation and to show that the President 
has not been inattentive to this subject; he has not been idle; he 
has not been cowardly, to quote the word used by the Senator 
from Utah, but has faithfully and seriously given his considera- 
tion, and his Administration has been with him upon this subject; 
and to-day, in this situation, that this subject should be forced, 
after the Senate has already passed a resolution and sent it to the 
other branch, and that the determination should be manifested to 
coerce the other branch, even to the extent of a rider ujion an 
approiH'iation bill, is intolerable. 

But, Mr. President. I have spoken longer now than I intended, 
and I make the motion that I rose to make — that the resolution be 
referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations. 

Mr. CANNON. Mr. President, I desire to make a personal ex- 
planation in behalf of a distinguished gentleman who was iipou 
the floor at the time of the interruption to which I called atten- 
tion. He states that while the objectionable words were actuallj' 
uttered by him as I declared they were, yet they were not spoken 
in reference to the statement which I was at that time making, but 
were purely a comment upon a certain matter quoted to him by 
another gentleman who was upon the floor at the time and related 
to another sxibject than the one under consideration here. 

Mr. President, I would not have accepted the explanation, but 
being person.ally acquainted with the gentleman who made the 
remark and who offered the explanation, and knowing his abso- 
lute truthfulness, 1 accept it absolutely and beg that the Senate 
will do so. There was on his part no intention to disturb this 
body or to contradict the statement made. 

8190 



LIBKHKY Uh CUNOKtSS 

inp 



